Elizabeth again

 Hello there everyone in Blogland - seems ages since I was last here. One way or another I don't seem to have found the time to make any cards never mind blogging them.  OH has got a poorly leg so we are off to the leg clinic twice a week so that doesn't help my cause at all as I am the driver.  Hey ho not to worry.  I did a craft fair yesterday but it was very quiet :(  Still I spent the time chatting to fellow stall holders - I did sell a few cards and covered my costs so at least I had a pleasant time

On a more positive note it was my Sister in Law's birthday on Saturday and I did manage to maker her a card.

 I got out Elizabeth Bennet again from IndoBlu - she is really pretty and I decided to use just weathered wood ink and promarkers which apart from her face I kept to blues and greys.  When I was at the Leigh show the other week I picked up some little frames from Crafty Bitz - they were cheap so I got a few  and used a computer generated sentiment and stuck it behind.  You couldn't post it though as the frame is metal and is heavy lol I die cut the butterfly.  Here are a couple of close ups.

Thanks for popping by feel free to leave a comment I read them all 

ATC Challenge

Oh My Word what an absolutely fantastic weekend I have had.  Firstly it was the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunlight on Saturday - had an absolutely great day bought loads of nice goodies, some new stamps from Clarity and another from IndigoBlu I also got a lovely stencil/mask from Clarity and some from Andy Skinner and what I also got was my Gelli plate - can't wait to have a play with that  whoop whoop watch this space.  ( wont get time today though)

Then on Sunday I went to a workshop at the Stamp Pad in Greenfield where Gwen Fletcher was hosting a workshop run by Andy Skinner we did this amazing Image transfer box isn't it cool I love it.

It was a brilliant day and I loved every minute of it 

Anyway the real reason for this blog is to say how I made this little ATC for a group I am in.  We exchange an ATC every month to a specific person within the group and each month we have a theme. The them for May was texture and the only stamps we can use are Clarity ones.

So this is my offering which went to my friend Sam  and I have been asked how I did it so here we go.
Firstly I sprayed some red dylusion on my card and dried it off.  I then smeared some glue and seal over part of the card and scribbled into it with the pallet knife and allowed to dry.  I then added a couple of squirts of blue dylusion and wiped it off.  That way it didn't colour where the glue and seal was.  I then put a mask over and put some embossing paste through the round holes and left to dry.  when dry I put the mask back over and and coloured with some more of the red - I just picked it up from my mat and painted on so that it only coloured the dots.
I stamped two maple leaves from Clarity stamp onto the card and embossed with clear embossing then I drew around with a fine black pen.  I stamped another and embossed with frantage gold enamel.  I stamped another in weathered wood and one in cranberry embossed these with clear then cut them out and stuck on.
Finally I squirted some goosebumps  on and left to dry.

And all that work for a piece of card 3.5 x 2.5 inches xx

May Already!

Its May already - how did that happen so quickly - just been looking back on my blog and apart from by DT post for the Clarity challenge I haven't blogged since 19th April - that's shocking isn't it?

I have some exciting news as I have now been asked to run some workshops at the Craft Range Burnley and they are having a demo day on 29th June and I will also be demoing on that day.  I have added another page to this blog showing what we will be doing on my up and coming workshops - please pop over and take a look!

I have a very busy week coming up - firstly I am looking after my friends Card stall in the local market for a couple of days ( she is on holiday and several of us are sharing the load). then I have a stand at a local workplace market on Friday  I have no idea what it will be like but I will either sell some cards - or not as the case may be .

Oh and what a weekend I have in store.  I am off the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunlight on Saturday - I go twice a year and spend spend spend  he he he It is a brilliant little show

And on Sunday I am off to see Gwen at the stamp pad in Greenfield as Andy Skinner is running a workshop - soo excited.

A few quick cards made the other day whilst I was at my craft club.  simply masked off areas of card and using a brayer and a selection of sentiment stamps, inkylicious grasses and a Kaisercraft texture stamp.

It's all in the Sentiment

Well here we are the first of the month and another exciting challenge on the Claritystamp challenge blog.  It's great being part of such a talented team and the artwork they produce is outstanding and gives me such inspiration to push myself further.  We have had some fantastic entries there are some extremely clever folk out there.

This month's challenge is entitled - it's all in the sentiment so I thought I would go with a butterfly theme as I have the lovely verse!

Stamps used:-

Butterfly montage stamp

small butterfly stamp

Happiness is a butterfly

sprig

crackle

I used pearlised card and brayered with antique velvet distress ink to shade slightly then added more colour around the edge.  I then used the crackle stamp to add a bit of depth.  The sprig was stamped used second generation ink and then also with versamark and gold embossing powder to tone tone in.

I coloured some heat resist acetate with alcohol inks - it doesn't really show on the picture but the butterflies are actually a red colour with flecks of gold.  I stamped the montage stamp a few times and embossed with gold so that it gave me extra butterflies so that I could cut them down to layer up.  I also used the small butterfly stamp

I stamped the verse on a separate piece of card and again used second generation for the sprig (I chose this sprig because if you look closely it is in the montage stamp). I drew around the verse with glue pen and embossed in gold.I also hand drew a bit of mesh to tie in in with the mesh on the montage and a gain added some embossed bits of sprig.

I hope you like it and would love to read your comments even more - I hope it inspires you to enter the challenge - good luck x

crackle

Just a quick card today ,

Here I have used weathered wood ink , the crackle stamp (again) from Kaiser craft and the trees which were  a new design club stamp from Clarity, I brayered a piece of white card and distressed the edges a little . I started by masking off a border wide enough to stamp the trees in , then I added some crackle above and below and a sentiment....simples 

more Butterflies

 I have been playing with these texture stamps again - I am loving them!

Both aperture cards cut with a spellbinder die and the butterfly dies are from Cheery Lynn.
the first card is done with milled lavender and dusty concorde. It is a bit difficult to see but the top one has been stamped all over with a texture stamp (sketchy) from Kaisercraft and then I added the butterfly/text/rose (botanical)stamp this is from kaisercraft too. The stamped butterfly is from Clarity.

The second one has been made in a similar way except this time I used the piece that I have cut out, distressed and stamped with another kaisercraft stamp (crackle) this one has been done in weathered wood distress ink

More Roses!

Morning Everyone 3 cards for my blog today.  I actually made these last week but have only just got around to posting them on here.  A continuation of me laying with the Clarity Rose, the mini version of the rose from the ATC set and the leafy twirls - a few random sentiment stamps and a spellbinder shape.

the background has been coloured lightly with my brayer added the leafy twirls then the rose was stamped and embossed in silver, coloured with a paintbrush and the same antique rose distress ink as the background.

The second card was done by cutting out an aperture.  I stamped the leafy twirl in versamark and embossed in silver.  I used the versamark ink pad straight around the edges - very randomly and embossed that too together with the sentiment then layered over the leafy twirl.  The rose was embossed in the same way cut out and stuck on top.

My final card of the trio was the first one I made, I stamped the rose cut it out and coloured with promarkers. I masked off a portion of the card and using the mini rose created a boarder, I coloured the background with a sponge and some moss green distress ink and then used pro markers to colour  the roses.  I added the leafy twirl and sentiment and then used foam pads to stick the rose on.  

At this point I thought that looks ok for a quick card but then I dropped my ink pad on it .  so I salvaged the rose and started again grr.